Sons Of Apollo

So you throw top musicians like Mike Portnoy (drums), Billy Sheehan (bass), Derek Sherinian (keyboards), Jeff Scott Soto (vocals) and Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal (guitar) in a cocktail shaker, shake it all up and what do you get? Exactly: a supergroup. Sherinian had had his eye on setting up a new band with Mike Portnoy for a long time. The two had played together before, both in Dream Theater and Tony MacAlpine’s live instrumental project, which also included Sheehan. So when Portnoy could finally spare the time in between his myriad projects, Soto and Thal jumped on the bandwagon and Sons of Apollo was born. Their debut ‘Psychotic Symphony’ dropped in 2017 and as you might expect from such accomplished instrumentalists, the result is more than entertaining. The album contains nine progressive metal tracks with a whiff of American retro rock. The members’ pedigrees shine through and it’s easy to identify some Guns, Dream Theater, Malmsteen etc. in there but that is intentional. Speaking of intentions, the fact that they’ve chosen to make this a band and not just a one-off speaks volumes. One to look forward to! (#GMM18)